The phone survey, which is conducted every two years in order to assess quality of life in Sangamon County, asked residents “How important, if at all, do you thinking growing downtown Springfield is to Sangamon County?” Nearly half of respondents report that it is “very important,” (47%), with an additional 39% reporting that it is “somewhat important.” In addition, African-American residents are slightly more favorable in their responses with 68% reporting that growing downtown Springfield is “very important.”

“What is especially interesting is that this year’s survey indicates more support for growing downtown Springfield among Sangamon County residents than the survey did in 2013,” said Ashley Kirzinger, director of the UIS Survey Research Office. “Both surveys found a majority of residents think growing downtown Springfield is important to Sangamon County, but the 2015 survey has a five percentage point increase from 81% to 86% of residents reporting this.”

The 2015 Sangamon County Citizen Survey is a telephone survey of landline and cell phone numbers in Sangamon County. The survey is representative of Sangamon County, Illinois and the data was weighted for probability sampling and to match the most recent population estimates as provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. The results are based on 576 completed interviews with 68% of the interviews completed on cell phones. The overall response rate for the survey is 13.2%, the cooperation rate is 23.2%, and the margin of error is +/- 4.08 percentage points.

The survey covers nine topical areas including education, economy, culture and recreation, public safety, social well-being, government and civic participation, health, infrastructure, and the environment.

For more information on the survey, contact Ashley Kirzinger, director of the UIS Survey Research Office, at 217/206-7956 or akirz2@uis.edu.